Defender Patrick Ziegler opens up about his return to form and his hopes to experience his first Finals Series with the Red & Black.
Defender Patrick Ziegler opens up about his recent return to form and his hopes to experience his first Finals Series with the Red & Black.
The towering defender joined the Red & Black last season after an extensive career in Germany, which saw him play for clubs such as SpvVgg Unterhaching, Paderborn 07 and more recently, 1. FC Kaiserslautern.
Unfortunately, a knee injury marred Ziegler’s first season with the Wanderers, restricting the defender to just six games.
Prior to the league’s suspension in March, Ziegler had almost featured in every game since November 2019 and was finally starting to hit his stride.
“I feel good, the first week of training was surprisingly good, my knee felt ok,” said Ziegler.
“It takes time, I mean even if you’re one year completely out then it usually takes one more year to get the normal fitness.
“I feel good and I felt good before Corona as well.”
The German defender is hoping that the final five games of the season are an opportunity to show off the Wanderers potential, pushing for a place in the Finals Series.
“It’s what we live for (Finals), this pressure, this excitement for these games,” explained Ziegler.
“I’ve never had this before, in Germany we don’t have this, so I’m pretty excited about this and I hope we will get there.
“Obviously, before the coronavirus came we had a good run.
“It’s not the problem that we don’t have the quality, the problem is to show it.
“So the potential is here, but if we don’t get it on the pitch, it’s for nothing. We have to show it in the games and we’ve done this before.”